PITTSBURGH — In the first four games of this series, the Pittsburgh Penguins had bursts where they matched their billing as one of the NHL’s most dangerous offensive teams.

Last night, it was more than a burst. It was a 40-minute blitzkrieg that started early in the second period and pushed the Penguins to a 3-1 victory in front of 18,618 at Consol Energy Center.

“(The Penguins) took it to another level in the second, and they started winning battles,” Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said. “We spent too much time in our zone. We didn’t have much of a forecheck, and it put a lot of pressure on our defense and our goaltender.”

The Blue Jackets face an elimination game on Monday night in Game 6 at Nationwide Arena. The Penguins lead the best-of-seven series 3-2.

“We have to stay up, stay positive, keep our heads up,” Blue Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky said. “We have to stay strong in here. We knew it was going to be a long series. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They were the better team without a doubt, but Game 6 is a new day.”

The Penguins pelted Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with 50 shots on goal, the most he has faced in an NHL game, regular season or playoffs. Bobrovsky stopped 48 shots, including 33 of 35 over the final two periods.

Shots weren’t the only noteworthy numbers. The Blue Jackets won 13 of 19 faceoffs in the first period, but just 10 the rest of the game. The Penguins won 25 of 35 in the final two periods. The Blue Jackets outhit the Penguins 37-34, but that’s the closest the margin has been in any of the games. If the NHL still tracked zone time, it would be as tilted as the ice seemed last night.

The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead on Boone Jenner’s third goal of the series — a power-play goal — at 12:55 of the first period.

The Penguins tied it on a power play at 7:42 of the second, when Chris Kunitz scored on a rebound off a Sidney Crosby shot. At 6:16 of the third, the Penguins went ahead when Jussi Jokinen scored off a rebound from a Brandon Sutter shot. Kris Letang’s empty-net goal with 1:01 remaining capped the scoring.

The Penguins played like an angry club for the first time in this series, perhaps after two days of getting bashed by fans and media and even getting called out by soft-spoken coach Dan Bylsma.

“They’ve played like that a few times in this series for stretches,” Blue Jackets center Mark Letestu said. “But they expanded on it tonight.”

The Penguins created more traffic — and had more crashes — with Bobrovsky than in any other game in the series.

“We needed to be harder in front of our net,” Richards said. “And we didn’t spend enough time in their zone to create the same kind of scrums around their net.”

The Blue Jackets now have their backs against the wall.

“We have to play our hardest and smartest game as a group,” Umberger said. “We have to be a lot better than we were tonight.”

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